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So, got a question on gaming groups. The other day I was presented with a chance to GM a game for my wife and a few of her friends. Since being presented with this chance, I have had a few questions spring to mind.

How many hours does your average game last on the days you normally play? At what point is the game running too long? Not long enough?

Do you host the games at your place or somewhere else? What are your general guidelines for when a game is not at the GMs house?

What was the quickest disbanding of a group you have ever been in? Did you make the call or was someone else the initiator? What was the reason?

Hi there !
In my group, we generally play 6 or 7 hours.
But We spend almost 1 hour eating, and we do some shorts breaks.
In the Dark Heresy rule book, I think it's written that a game is often 4 or 5h.
We use to do it in the GM house, but Wednesday we will do one game in a player house.
I don't see particular rules, its the same as usual, but we pay our food etc... And don't eat what is in his fridge.
Have a good time !

 ProtoClone wrote:
So, got a question on gaming groups. The other day I was presented with a chance to GM a game for my wife and a few of her friends. Since being presented with this chance, I have had a few questions spring to mind.

How many hours does your average game last on the days you normally play? At what point is the game running too long? Not long enough?

4-6 if we start in the evening. 6-12 if we start in the afternoon.

Do you host the games at your place or somewhere else? What are your general guidelines for when a game is not at the GMs house?

At one point, I preferred to do it elsewhere. These days, I prefer the comfort of someone's home. If we're not playing in someone's house, I'd prefer somewhere we won't be the object of ridicule, somewhere with access to a bathroom, and preferably somewhere with access to food. Outdoors is frowned upon.

What was the quickest disbanding of a group you have ever been in? Did you make the call or was someone else the initiator? What was the reason?

First game session, first encounter. One party member screwed up and used a spell that blinded the whole party (Darkness). Instead of admitting her mistake (she thought her own character, a drow, could see through it), she kept the spell up, resulting in the party dying. (They were trying to fight kobolds who had lured them to the edge of a pit. A number of people fell into the pit, there were some crits from the kobolds...it was ugly. The drow player pitched an unholy fit claiming the GM was trying to deliberately kill the group to play another game, and the game fell apart shortly thereafter. (In the years since, the story isn't helped by the fact that the GM did start a new game a few weeks later.)

Lots of games break up after only a game or two, but ones that run past the first three or four games tend to run fairly long, usually several months. For a tabletop game with a single run (rather than an on-again off-again game) I think a little over two years is the best I've seen. I know a couple of VtM LARPs that, while I'm not involved with them, have been going for over a decade.

IME you need at least four hours. If things go well, a session can last until the players pass out from exhaustion. I'd strongly suggest starting at the low end. If most of the players can't agree to playing for four hours, there's pretty much no reason to go forward. But if everyone, or almost everyone, can commit to four hours then stick to that. Stick to it even if (especially if) everyone is having a good time and wants to keep playing. What you will very quickly find is the main problem is not how long a single session lasts but how to get to the next session, given all the other things adults can and must do with their time.

Wherever you guys decide to game, be sure to plan about food beforehand and ideally eat before or after but not during the session. As far as DMing at someone else's house, just be a polite guest as you would in any other social occasion.

I have had groups disband even before the first session happened. And to be honest, most groups do not make it to the second session. This is just how things go with adults. If you get three or four sessions in, consider it a success. Since getting out "into the real world" and having an actual career, I think my longest campaign has lasted two months of weekly play.

Our sessions usually run 7.30 - 11pm, although we usually dont get much actual gaming done until about 8. The host supplies the tea, the snacks are a group effort.

There's up to seven of us in the group (including whoever's GMing). If one or more players can't make it, we just carry on without them. Sometimes that means characters "take a back seat" in the middle of a combat, but so be it. We usually try not to finish a session mid-fight, though - if there's a long combat coming up and it's getting on for half ten, then we usually finish early.

 ProtoClone wrote:
So, got a question on gaming groups. The other day I was presented with a chance to GM a game for my wife and a few of her friends. Since being presented with this chance, I have had a few questions spring to mind.

How many hours does your average game last on the days you normally play? At what point is the game running too long? Not long enough?

My gaming group meets once per week, after work from 7pm-11pm. Recently one of my players got a new job that cuts our effective playtime to about 8:30/9 to 11pm. I find gaming sessions less than 2 hours or more than 5 hours are too/long short respectively, outside 1-shots.

Do you host the games at your place or somewhere else? What are your general guidelines for when a game is not at the GMs house?

We play at one of my player's houses. He's actually one of my old roommates. We used to play at our joint place, until I moved. Since everyone was used to the old location and it's at about the 1/2 way point of all possible locations, we play there.

What was the quickest disbanding of a group you have ever been in? Did you make the call or was someone else the initiator? What was the reason?[/i]

As a GM: ~2 Sessions. Mutual. Nobody was enjoying it, I wasn't they weren't. Mostly due to poor expectation setting, and execution on my part
As a Player: 1 Session. Mutual. Interpersonal Drama.

Time: Usually about 4 hours. Shorter or longer depending on group/'event'. Last group I was with, we'd meet for roughly 4 hour sessions, with a 1-2 times per year cabin retreat of 2-3 days gaming almost non-stop. Meanwhile, I'm restarting my 'Kids D&D' game this weekend, and expect anywhere from 1-4 hours, depending on attention spans (difficult to judge due to various levels of mental health issues with each kid).

Hosting: I try to host at my place, even when I'm just a player - means I don't have a drive home. Also play occasionally at a local game shop, though in those cases, I make sure to purchase something (never mind the shop owner doesn't require a purchase, but if he's providing a game space, least I can do is help him cover the bills)

Disbanding: I think 3-4 sessions. Various groups. One, the GM got busy RL and stopped posting 'next session' info. Another, I would take my son and he'd play with the host's same-age-kid - that one died because I couldn't handle gaming with 30-year-old-middle-schoolers, especially when the language/innuendo/body function humor was repeated by my son when we got home (at the time, I was in the process of divorcing, so finding places he and I could each have our own fun out of the house was good). Usually, when a group I've been in folds, it's a matter of real life getting in the way.

Disbanding Pt II: The longest-lasting group I was a part of was 3 years, of which I was only a member for a year and a half. What made that one work: multiple GMs (4 at its height) and about 30 active players. Sandbox setting with a continuous calendar, rotating cast of characters and players scheduling sessions when they were available. A players would suggest a session/mission, one of the GMs would volunteer (usually the one in charge of the area to be explored), and other players would sign up for the session. Best: new players and those who hadn't played recently got dibs on sessions. Only reason it ended was that the story of that setting was at an end.

 Carlson793 wrote:


Disbanding Pt II: The longest-lasting group I was a part of was 3 years, of which I was only a member for a year and a half. What made that one work: multiple GMs (4 at its height) and about 30 active players. Sandbox setting with a continuous calendar, rotating cast of characters and players scheduling sessions when they were available. A players would suggest a session/mission, one of the GMs would volunteer (usually the one in charge of the area to be explored), and other players would sign up for the session. Best: new players and those who hadn't played recently got dibs on sessions. Only reason it ended was that the story of that setting was at an end.

Traditional campaigns can run this long as well. I've been running single game as sole GM that is coming up on it's 3rd anniversary now, without anyone ever having changed their PC. Apart from some breaks for schedule adjustments or vacations it's been an every-week affair for the majority of that time too.

Which isn't to poo-poo a larger venture like yours, just point out you get this kind of longevity out of smaller arrangements too.

Good luck. Answers below in your quote.

 ProtoClone wrote:


How many hours does your average game last on the days you normally play? At what point is the game running too long? Not long enough?
- We have a hard 3 hour limit, so any story we want to get across is in three hours. A game can run as long or as short as it needs to as long as the players want to come back and find out what is going on in the next session. You have to keep it twisting and turning like a good TV serial with the end of each adventure only hinting at what is next.


Do you host the games at your place or somewhere else? What are your general guidelines for when a game is not at the GMs house?
- We game at a central location where we can all meet. It is best when one of the players organizes things and not the GM. That shows that the players still want to play. If the game is not at your own house, be prepared to provide all of your own food, beverages, and supplies (dice, minis, paper, pencils, etc) unless previously instructed otherwise.

What was the quickest disbanding of a group you have ever been in? Did you make the call or was someone else the initiator? What was the reason?
- Three sessions. The group decided that it was no longer working out. If someone else is supposed to organize, and they never do that is a good sign that your game is dead.

 ProtoClone wrote:


1. How many hours does your average game last on the days you normally play? At what point is the game running too long? Not long enough?

2. Do you host the games at your place or somewhere else? What are your general guidelines for when a game is not at the GMs house?

3. What was the quickest disbanding of a group you have ever been in? Did you make the call or was someone else the initiator? What was the reason?

1. 4-5 hours every Friday. At midnight, the host and his wife get sleepy (That's me. GTFO!). Less than 4 hours feels like a waist of everyone's time.

2. I host at my place, but we played at an FLGS until I was comfortable enough with the group to invite them over. Players should bring their dice, character sheets, snacks/meals, etc. What else are you looking for? There are several faux pas that can happen that aren't intentional, but us gamers aren't always the most socially adept. If you are always eating chips but don't bring any, don't be surprised if the chip-fairy suddenly stopped making visits...

3. 2 sessions. I made the call by dropping out of the group, along with my wife. After that, they only had 3 players and they no longer play. There were 2 reasons: gakky GM and donkey-cave player. gakky GM did not know the rules very well, would constantly tell stories from other games that none of us played in, and only focused on the wishes of donkey-cave Player. donkey-cave player acted like the rest of us were supporting characters in his one man show. He acted like the face-man constantly, and the group would often disagree with what he was telling people. He kept his "stats" secret, including alignment. I only get 1 night a week to game, and I wasn't going to spend it with constant in-party fighting and bickering from an attention whore. My new group is awesome.

My RPG group currently meets twice a week, Fridays and Sundays. Friday we generally go from 6-ish to 10-11ish. Sometimes we start a little late, depending on work schedules. Sundays are 5-9. So the average session is 4 hours.

We game at people’s houses, but not necessarily the GMs. We used to rotate between my place and one of the other guys, but lately we’ve just been over there. One of the guys has some bad chronic joint pain, and there are more stairs at my place.

I’ve never had a game group break up. People have moved in and out, or away, but there always has been continuity. I had the same group throughout middle/high school, left for college, and have been gaming more or less with the same guys since ’93.

Now we’ve had campaigns die, sometimes after just a session or two. But the group games on.